Overview of Recent DIII-D Experimental Results

DIII-D experiments in 2009 addressed critical ITER issues and physics understanding needed for extrapolation to future devices. Multiple schemes for rapid plasma shutdown were demonstrated including massive gas injection, large shattered D$_2$ pellets and impurity filled shell pellets. Detailed particle balance experiments show dramatically reduced wall uptake in ITER relevant H-mode compared with L-mode. Joint DIII-D/JET experiments showed no dependence of pedestal pressure width on $\rho^*$, indicating a favorable scaling to ITER. Torque from non-resonant magnetic perturbations improved access to QH-mode at low rotation. DIII-D demonstrated low voltage startup with ECH assist and low $\ell_i$ plasma \mbox{rampdown}, as well as solenoidless startup. Progress on qualifying Hybrid scenario plasmas for $Q=10$ in ITER included $\beta_N = 2.5$ with ELM suppression by RMPs. Advances in physics understanding included: 1) systematic $q_{min}$, $q_{95}$ scans showing the dependence of $n_e$ and $T_e$ profiles on $q(r)$, 2)~plasma response to non-axisymmetric fields, 3)~validation of core turbulence and thermal transport models and 4)~intrinsic rotation studies.